Method and apparatus for heating and planing roads



Dec. 7, 1965 c. H. QUIGG 3,221,617

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HEATING AND PLANING ROADS Filed Aug. 8, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ammyapug mf MZ/ ATTORNEYS Dec. 7, 1965 c. H. QUIGG 3,221,617

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HEATING AND PLANING ROADS Filed Aug. 8, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 [ii "i H II I uy;

| 'l lilin INVENTOR ATTORNEYS c. H. ounce 3,221,617

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HEATING AND PLANING ROADS Dec. 7, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. 8, 1961 INVENTOR United States Patent M 3,221,617 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HEATING AND PLANING ROADS Charles H. Quigg, 5600 Bent Branch Road, Bethesda, Md. Filed Aug. 8, 1961, Ser. No. 130,032 3 Claims. (Cl. 94--42) It is an object of this invention to provide a bituminous road surface treating machine which is exceedingly versatile and capable of performing any heating and planing operations normally encountered in the treatment or repair of asphalt pavements with maximum efliciency.

It is a further important object of the invention to provide a plurality of individually adjustable planer units in cooperative association with a radiant incandescent heater assembly whereby simultaneous cuts of differing depths may be made in laterally adjacent portions of the pavement by a single pass of the machine thereover. Present heater-planer machines currently employed in the industry utilize kerosene burners disposed beneath a downwardly facing hood and a single unitarily adjustable windrow forming planer disposed rearwardly of the kerosene burner. In these conventional machines, the open flame is impinged against the asphalt in an effort to soften the same for subsequent planing or scraping. In practice, however, these flame burners can only effectively heat a small fraction of an inch of the pavement surface, the heat failing to penetrate the asphalt to a greater depth. Further, the asphalt can be charred by the direct flame impingement thereagainst, which charring effectively insulates the pavement against the flame heat. Accordingly in these conventional heater planers, the planer assembly can take off no more than approxiately one-eighth of an inch of top asphalt or asphalt char in a single pass. As a result thereof, in order to plane or level the street to an effective depth greater than an eighth of an inch, it is necessary to pass the machine repeatedly over the same'portion of the pavement, with consequent delay and consumption of time, consumption of kerosene and vehicle fuel, and increased man-hour and equipment expense generally.

Further, it is frequently desirable and necessary to plane laterally adjacent areas of a street to different depths, depending upon the irregularities in the asphalt pavement thereat, the crown of the street or highway, or the proximity of curbing or gutters, etc. The conventional kerosene flame-heater planer machines available on the market today, are provided with conventional V-shaped windrowforming planers which are adjustable only as a unit, whereby the planer assembly is capable of scraping or planing as a unit only to a single predetermined depth which, as stated, is usually an approximate maximum of one-eighth of one inch, due to the deficiencies of the impingement flame burner assembly normally associated therewith.

It is therefore a further very important object of my invention to provide an incandescent radiant heater assembly on an asphalt pavement treating vehicle which is capable of efliciently heating and softening the asphalt by radiation to a substantial depth without surface char, the incandescent heater assembly having cooperatively associated therewith a planer assembly of the windrow forming V-type, wherein each individual planer blade may be individually preset to plane at a predetermined depth, such as three-fourths of an inch with one blade and three-eighths of an inch with the other blade, whereby simultaneous laterally adjacent cuts of differing depth as desired may be made in a single pass of the machine, in an eflicient and economical manner.

By virtue of the asphalt treating machine of my invention, an operator is thus able to accomplish his work quickly and efliciently with the least consumption of time and wear on the apparatus. Further, my machine being capa- 3,22 l ,6 l 7 Patented Dec. 7, 1965 ble of planing to differing depths simultaneously, it is unnecessary for further operators or workmen to treat a given piece of pavement with smaller machines or patchers to achieve desired differing depths in differing locales.

As a further example of the versatility of my invention and which is a further object of my invention, in the heating and planing of asphalt streets and highways, it is frequently necessary to elevate the planing mechanism above the pavement to clear an obstruction, such as a sewer or manhole cover. As an obstruction of this character is much smaller in width than the lateral dimensions of the conventional planer assembly, in elevating the conventional planer assembly to avoid the said obstruction, a substantial portion of the pavement remains untreated and unscraped while the machine is passing over the manhole cover prior to re-lowering of the planer mechanism to continue scraping the pavement afterthe obstruction has been passed. In this situation, it is necessary to subsequently utilize a small hand-operated asphalt treating machine, called a patcher, which must be brought by an attendant to the road area which was necessarily missed while the planer mechanism was elevated to clear the obstruction, and at that time subsequently heat the omitted area with the hand-operated machine and scrape the segment of pavement which was not scraped previously. Accordingly, with the heater-planer of my invention, in approaching an obstruction such a a manhole cover, a single planer blade only need be elevated, i.e. the planer blade in alignment with the obstruction as the machine advances theretoward, the remaining planer blade or blades remaining in scraping and planing engagement with the asphalt, whereby the additional time and expense of individually treating the unplaned area adjacent the manhole cover is thus obviated. 1 e

Other objects and advantages of myinvention will be apparent from the following description in detail, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the road treating machine of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial, fragmentary side elevation of the heater assembly and planer assembly for performing a road treating operation.

FIG. 3 is a top plan of the heating assembly and plane assembly shown performing a pavement treating operation.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the the rear portion of the heater.

Referring to the drawings, my road treating machine 10 (FIG. 1) comprises a vehicle chassis 11 provided with front wheel assembly 12, rear wheel assembly 13, a propelling motor, transmission and steering assembly 14, and an operators station 50. Slung beneath the forward portion of the chassis 11 is a radiant incandescent heater assembly 15, and pivotally secured to the chassis rearwardly thereof is a dual adjustable planer assembly 20.

As best seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, the heater assembly 15 essentially comprises a generally rectangular frame 16. Suitable reenforcing bars 17 extend longitudinally of the frame and are secured thereto to rigidify the frame structure. A plurality of transverse stringers 18, FIG. 3, are secured to the frame 15 and provide a support for a plurality of individual heater units 19. The heaters 19 are secured in transverse rows to the stringers 18 and are arranged as shown in FIG. 3, to fill the area within the frame 16.

The radiant incandescent heaters 19 include a grid or screen on the lower surface thereof which is heated to incandescence by a gas flame thereabove. These heater units 19 are readily available on the market and are sold for diverse uses as in ovens, heat thereapy for medical purposes, etc. One such heater that I have employed at planer assembly and 3 19 is manufactured under U.S. Patent 2,775,294, to Schwank.

A plurality of manifolds 21, three being shown, are provided in alignment adjacent each transverse row of heaters 19 (FIG. 3), with each heater connected to its adjacent manifold 21 by means of a short inlet conduit 22. Mounted on the heater frame 16 and disposed longitudinally thereof above units 19, are a plurality of main supply conduits 23 which are each tapped to the several transverse manifolds 21. Flexible lines 24, FIG. 1, establish gaseous fuel flow between the supply conduits 23 and a valved liquefied petroleum gas supply tank 25 mounted on the chassis 11. The flexible lines 24 permit the heater assembly 15 to raise from its lowermost position shown in full lines in FIG. 1 to the dashed line position 62.

The heater assembly 15 is suspended from chassis 11 by means of four cables 26, two on each side of the vehicle and disposed forwardly and rearwardly of the assembly 15. The lower end of each forward cable 26 is connected to the frame 16, the cable passing upwardly around a chassis-mounted pulley 27 and thence around a pulley 28, which latter is rotatably secured to the piston rod of a hydraulic cylinder 29. The cylinder 29 is secured to the vehicle chassis 1 1, as is the other end of the cable 26. A similar pulley and hydraulic cylinder arrangement is provided for each rearmost cable 26, FIG. 3. The lower end of each rearmost cable is secured to a guide post 30 which is slidably received within vertically spaced sleeves 31 rigidly secured to the vehicle chassis. The lower end of each guide post is provided with a downwardly extending yoke 32 which straddles a gently curved I-beam 33 secured as by welding to the heater frame 16.

Each yoke 32 is provided with a pair of inwardly facing rollers 34, FIG. 1, which are received within the channels of beam 33 and ride against the underside of the upper horizontal flange thereof. Thus it will be seen that the heater assembly 15 is supported by the four cables 26. Fluid lines are conventionally connected to the hydraulic cylinders 29 and controls are provided at the operators station 50, whereby fluid may be simultaneously admitted into or exhausted from the forward ends of the cylinders 29 to elevate or lower the heater assembly 15 in parallelism with the subjacent pavement. The guide posts 30 slide within the fixed sleeves 31 as the heater assembly 15 is raised or lowered to thereby maintain the illustrated parallelism between the heater assembly, chassis and pavement, and prevent any lateral or longitudinal sway of the cable supported heater assembly relative to the vehicle.

A feature of my machine resides in the roller connection 34 between the guide post 30 and the beam 33 when performing road repair work in a curved section of roadway or around a trafiic circle to shift the rear and of the heater assembly 15 laterally with respect to the forward end thereof to thereby cant rectangular frame 16 at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. To this end, a hydraulic cylinder 35, FIG. 4, has its rear end pivotally secured to one of the heater frame bars 17, while the piston rod of cylinder 35 (FIG. 3) is pivotally secured to a transverse brace 36, which latter is rigidly fixed at its opposite ends to the depending guide post yokes 32. Suitable hydraulic lines are provided for the cylinder 35 and operating controls therefor are located at the operators station 50. As the piston rod is secured to brace 36, it will be seen that when fluid is admitted into left hand end of cylinder 35, FIG. 3, the cylinder 35 will be drawn to the left over the piston rod, and as the cylinder is connected to the heater frame, curved beam 33 will travel to the left along guide post rollers 34 to thereby cant the rectangular heater assembly with respect to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle.

The dual planer assembly 20 is disposed rearwardly of the heater assembly 15 and in cooperative association therewith. In the preferred dual planer arrangement of my machine illustrated in the drawings, I provide two laterally adjacent similar blade units 40a, 401). Each blade unit includes supporting frame structure 41 which is pivoted at its forward end to depending ears 42 of the vehicle chassis. The cars 42 are disposed above the rearrnost portion of the heater assembly 14 and the blade frame 41 inclines downwardly and rearwardly therefrom, as seen in FIGS 1 and 3. An angle iron brace 43 inclined to the longitudinal axis of the machine is dependently rigidly secured to the pivoted frame 41. Mounted on the forward face of brace 43 is a planer blade 44. The blade 44 may be rigidly afiixed to the brace 43, or preferably the blade is attached to the brace by means of bolts to permit ready assembly and replacement thereof when desired. In this latter construction blade 44 and brace 43 may be provided with a plurality of suitable spaced bolt holes to permit limited vertical or horizontal adjustment of the blade relative to the brace, in usual fashion.

As best seen in FIG. 3, the blades 44 of the two planer units 46a, 40b converge rearwardly toward each other in a general V-configuration, with one blade slightly overlapping the innermost end of the other blade, as is conventional.

A feature of my invention resides in the individual vertical adjustability of each of the planer units 49a, 40b in cooperation with the heater assembly 15 during road repair and maintenance operations. To this end, a hydraulic cylinder 45 is individually associated with each planer unit. Each hydraulic cylinder at its upper end is pivoted to an ear secured to the chassis 11, while the piston rod is pivotally connected at 46 to the pivoted blade frame 41, as seen in FIG. 4. Suitable hydraulic lines are connected to the fluid cylinders 45 and individual controls for each cylinder are provided at the operators station 50. By virtue of this construction it will be seen that either planer unit 40a or 40b may be elevated or lowered independently of the other unit, and accordingly one blade 44 may be thus adjusted to cut at a lesser or greater depth than the other blade 44, or elevated to inactive position, as desired. While in my preferred construction I have shown two planer units as spanning the road surface radiantly heated by the assembly 15, I may provide a greater number of planer units, e.g. four, of individually lesser transverse width behind the heater assembly 15, wherein each of the several planer units will also be provided with an independently controlled hydraulic cylinder 45.

My machine as just described possesses a capability and versatility which is very desirable to the efficient repair and treatment of asphalt or like bituminous road surfaces, and possesses features which have heretofore been unknown in the industry and are absent on the commercially available machines of the heater-planer character. At the present time commercially available heater-planer equipment is provided with a heating unit which comprises a downwardly facing hood which is disposed adjacent the road surface. Within this hood, kerosene-fired burners direct jets of flame directly against the subjacent pavement in an effort to heat and soften the same. As a result of the flame impingement against the asphalt road, the immediate top surface thereof becomes highly heated, burns and chars. The heat from the kerosene flame fails to penetrate the asphalt to any significant depth, and is further hindered in this respect by the formation of char on the top surface. Further the planer assembly of standard equipment is vertically adjustable only as a unit, as compared to the dual independent planer blades of my improved machine.

These conventional planer units, as a result of inefficient road heating, are thus normally only able to plane or scrape to a maximum depth of one-eighth of an inch in a single pass of a machine over a given road area. It is often necessary to plane the road to a greater depth in repair or resurfacing operations, and it is accordingly necessary for conventional machines to make a number of return passes over the same road section, planing about an eighth of an inch on each try, with a consequently greater expense of time, manpower and fuel. Further, greater quantities of heat from the inefficient kerosene flame rise outwardly and upwardly from the enclosing hood in conventional equipment, creating hot and very uncomfortable working conditions for the machine operator and attendant workmen.

My machine overcomes these disadvantages of present equipment. Gaseous fuel admitted to each of the commercially available heater units 19 is utilized to heat the grids or screens thereof to incandescence, whereby heat therefrom radiates downwardly as diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 2 at 59 to penetrate the bituminous road surface and heat and soften the same to a considerable depth as compared with conventional kerosene flame torches or burners. Further, by virtue of the radiant nature of the heat, there is no flame impingement against the road and no resultant surface charring thereof to handicap heat penetration. The planer assembly 20 is set to scrape the thus heated and softened road to a substantial depth which may be on the order of a half inch or three-fourths of an inch, or as great as an inch. As a result thereof, a leveling cut of substantial depth is eifected by a single pass of the machine over the road surface to be treated, thereby obviating the necessity for repeated passes of the machine to effect a relatively deep planing operation with conventional equipment as above discussed. As illustrated in the drawings, the heater assembly may be provided with wheels 61 to support the heater assembly in predetermined spaced relation above the road surface. If desired, however, the wheels 61 may be omitted and the heater assembly supported in full by the cables 26 in proximity to the road surface.

A further highlyadvantageous feature of my machine under certain operating conditions is illustrated in FIG. 3. As seen therein, the heater and planer assemblies are treating road surfaces adjacent the street curb 51 and gutter 52. As the machine travels, the asphaltic material scraped by planer blades 44 from the planed road surface 57 passes rearwardly along the blades and off the inner ends thereof to form an asphalt windrow 54. In the event an obstruction, such as a manhole cover 55, is encountered during the machine travel, the planer unit 40b in line therewith may be elevated by means'of its associated hydraulic cylinder 45, at the line 53 as the blade approaches the manhole cover 55, while the other planer unit 40a is held in lowered scraping position as the planer assembly passes over the obstruction 55. Thereafter the planer unit 4% may be again lowered at the point indicated by dashed line 56 to permit both blades to continue planing the road. In conventional equipment, as exemplified in US. Patent 2,705,906 to Fizell, the entire unitary planer assembly must be elevated when an obstruction is approached, which results in rather large sections of the road between the manhole cover 55 and curb 51 remaining unplaned. As a result thereof, it is necessary for workmen to later return to this large unplaned area with small hand equipment and consume considerable time in laboriously heating and scraping such unplaned road sections. It will be appreciated that in urban areas there are considerable numbers of obstructions, such as sewer and utility manholes, and accordingly with conventional equipment a large amount of time, labor and equipment is consumed in hand treating these areas which conventional heater planer machines cannot treat. My machine thus reduces manual operations of this character to a minimum.

By the same token, in road repair operations it is frequently desirable to plane or scrape the road adjacent the curb to a greater depth than that portion of the road more inwardly toward the center of the street. With conventional equipment this simultaneous planing of adjacent areas to different lateral depths cannot be performed by virtue of the unitary construction of the planer assembly. With my machine, however, it is readily seen that the planer unit nearest the curb in FIG. 3 for example, may be positioned by its hydraulic cylinder 45 to a desired relatively deep cutting depth adjacent the curb while the planer unit 40b remote from the curb 51 may be pre-set by its cylinder 45 to a lesser cutting depth, whereby simultaneous cuts of varying depths in laterally adjacent areas may be made in a single pass by the machine. This described versatility may be further enhanced by providing the planer assembly 20 with a greater number of individual hydraulically controlled planer units than the two units 40a, 40b illustrated, as mentioned above.

The exceptional versatility of my machine by virtue of the cooperative relationship between the heater assembly 15 and the dual unit planer assembly 20 may be further illustrated. It will be noted that each of the main supply conduits 23 is provided with one or more valves 58 therealong, and similar valves are provided in connection with the several flexible supply lines 24 at the main LPG supply tank 25 on the vehicle. By virtue of this construction, selected groups of the heaters 19 may be shut down and thus be cold when desired. For example, it may be necessary to heat and plane only a single relatively narrow strip of pavement rather than a section as broad as the heater unit 15. In this case blocks of heaters 19 forwardly of the planer unit 40b may be cut off, and the planer unit 40b elevated to inactive position, while the remaining heaters 19 generally aligned with the planer blade 40a may be heated to incandesence and the blade 44b of unit 40a lowered to cutting position. In this manner only a strip of pavement of a width generally corresponding to that of one planar blade 44 will be heated and planed, and fuel will not be unnecessarily expended in heating and softening the laterally adjacent portion of the pavement which is not to be scraped.

As the units 19 are much more eflicient and apply considerably more heat to the subjacent road surface than the conventional kerosene flame impingement burners, it is sometimes unnecessary to heat all of the heaters 19 to incandesence with particular road surfaces. In this situation, a plurality of transverse rows of heaters 19 at the forward portion of the assembly 15 may be shut down by means of suitably located valves 58, whereby road softening radiant heat is furnished only from the rearwardly disposed heaters 19, thereby again eflecting fuel economies and avoiding unnecessary generation of heat. Similarly, the valves 58 permit regulation of the radiant heat output of the burners between full-on and full-off positions, which may be adjusted to the desired degree to permit only the depth of cut to which the planer units are pre-set.

When road treatment operations are completed, the planer assembly 20 may be elevated by its several hydraulic cylinders 45 to inactive position, and the operator also elevates the heater assembly 15 to the dash line inactive position 62 illustrated in FIG. 1, after which the machine may be propelled under its own power to any desired locale.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that I have provided a road treating heater planer machine which is exceedingly capable and versatile in nature and which is highly efficient for the purposes intended as compared with conventional equipment in the industry, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

While I have described my machine in conjunction with the illustrations thereof in the drawings, it will be appreciated that the same is susceptible of minor variations in form, shape and appearance wherein certain parts may be rearranged or relocated, as valves, heater units, planer blades, etc., without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention as recited in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A machine for treating roads having a bituminous or like surface, comprising a powered wheeled chassis, an incandescent heater assembly mounted on said chassis for radiating heat into the road surface for softening the same, means for vertically adjusting said heater assembly, a planing assembly mounted on said chassis rearwardly of said heater assembly, said planing assembly comprising a plurality of laterally adjacent planing blades for cutting the softened road surface, power-operated means operatively associated with each of said blades for individually vertically adjusting each blade independently of the other blades to individually predetermine the depth of cut of each blade through laterally adjacent portions of the radiantly heated and softened road surface, and means for operating said power-operated means for adjusting the respective depths of cut during motion of said machine along the road.

2. A machine for treating roads having a bituminous or like surface, comprising a powered wheeled vehicle, a radiating incandescent heater assembly slung beneath said vehicle and supported thereby in vertically spaced parallel relation to the road surface, fluid cylinder means for raising and lowering said heater assembly, fluid cylinder means for laterally shifting said heater assembly relative to said vehicle, a pair of laterally adjacent planer units carried by said vehicle and disposed rearwardly of said heater assembly, fluid cylinder means operatively associated with each of said planer units respectively for individually determining the cutting depth of each planer unit independently of the other, and control means for each of said fluid cylinder means, whereby the cutting depths of each planer unit may be adjusted by the operator during motion of said machine.

3. A bituminous pavement treating machine comprising, a powered wheeled vehicle, an incandescent radiating heater assembly disposed beneath said vehicle in parallel spaced relation to the subjacent pavement for heating and softening the same, a plurality of cables connected between said heater assembly and said vehicle for supporting said assembly, fluid cylinder means operatively associated with said cables for raising and lowering said assembly, sleeve means secured to said vehicle and having vertically disposed bores, a pair of laterally spaced vertical guide posts connected at their lower ends to said ueater assembly and having their upper portions received in said sleeve means to prevent longitudinal or transverse sway of said cable-supported heater assembly, a planer assembly carried by said vehicle rearwardly of said heater assembly, said planer assembly including a plurality of blades for scraping heated and softened pavement, and fluid cylinder means operatively associated with each of said blades for vertically independently adjusting each blade of said planer assembly.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,729,573 9/ 1929 Finley. 1,952,452 3/ 1934 Monroe. 1,984,849 12/1934 Van Allen et al. 126-27l.2 2,048,813 7/1936 Porterfield 9442 2,053,709 9/ 1936 Flynn. 2,241,299 5/1941 Finley 9444 2,254,463 9/ 1941 Wells et al. 2,705,906 4/ 1955 Fizzell 9439 3,055,280 9/1962 Neville 9442 3,096,696 7/1963 Reisser 9442 X FOREIGN PATENTS 419,618 11/1934 Great Britain.

JACOB L. NACKENOFF, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM I. MUSHAKE, Examiner. 

1. A MACHINE FOR TREATING ROADS HAVING A BITUMINOUS OR LIKE SURFACE, COMPRISING A POWDERED WHEELED CHASSIS, AN INCANDESCENT HEATER ASSEMBLY MOUNTED ON SAID CHASSIS FOR RADIATING HEAT INTO THE ROAD SURFACE FOR SOFTENING THE SAME, MEANS FOR VERTICALLY ADJUSTING SAID HEATER ASSEMBLY, A PLANNING ASSEMBLY MOUNTED ON SAID CHASSIS REARWARDLY OF SAID HEATER ASSEMBLY, SAID PLANNING ASSEMBLY COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF LATERALLY ADJACENT PLANING BLADES FOR CUTTING THE SOFTENED ROAD SURFACE, POWER-OPERATED MEANS OPERATIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH EACH OF SAID BLADES FOR INDIVIDUALLY VERTICALLY ADJUSTING EACH BLADE INDEPENDENTLY OF THE OTHER BLADES TO INDIVIDUALLY PREDETERMINE THE DEPTH OF CUT OF EACH BLADE HEATED AND SOFTENED ROAD SURFACE, AND OF THE RADIANTLY SAID POWER-OPERATED MEANS FOR ADJUSTING THE RESPECTIVE DEPTHS OF CUT DURING MOTION OF SAID MACHINE ALONG THE ROAD. 